Category Archives: Analysis & Opinion

Diversity is an integral aspect of core functioning of any organization; it’s not about “getting rid of a problem.” Diversity is embedded in issues of fairness, morale, justice, procedures, ability to adapt to changing conditions, ability to attract and meet the needs of diverse customers—all things that are central to the functioning of the organization.…

Recently there has been increased publicity around “fake” scientific studies. These have two major implications for our work. First, they may serve to increase existing skepticism about the value of applying scientific evidence to D&I efforts. Second, well-meaning D&I consultants and trainers may not know how to distinguish real studies from fake evidence or high-quality…

A large number of implicit measures have been developed and tested. The most widely used and frequently cited is the Implicit Association Test. However, that is only one of several measures using a variety of different procedures and have various strengths and limitations. We list six below. Each are linked to the most commonly cited…

Today’s leadership is in the position of inheriting problems with origins beyond their immediate professional environment. Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation has been a flashpoint issue for many Americans, no matter which side they fall on. Significant cultural events like these are not limited to “outside the workplace” discussion. They will find their way to…

Over the past two decades, thousands of studies have demonstrated that Blacks receive lower quality medical care than Whites, independent of disease status, setting, insurance, and other clinically relevant factors. Despite this, there has been little progress towards eradicating these inequities. Almost a decade ago we proposed a conceptual model identifying mechanisms through which clinicians’ behavior, cognition, and decision making might be influenced by implicit racial biases and explicit racial stereotypes, and thereby contribute to racial inequities in care. Empirical evidence has supported many of these hypothesized mechanisms, demonstrating that White medical care clinicians: (1) hold negative implicit racial biases and explicit racial stereotypes, (2) have implicit racial biases that persist independently of and in contrast to their explicit (conscious) racial attitudes, and (3) can be influenced by racial bias in their clinical decision making and behavior during encounters with Black patients. This paper applies evidence from several disciplines to further specify our original model and elaborate on the ways racism can interact with cognitive biases to affect clinicians’ behavior and decisions and in turn, patient behavior and decisions. We then highlight avenues for intervention and make specific recommendations to medical care and grant-making organizations